Category: Fiction

Today is the fourth day that you left me for your trip. It all happened so fast: One moment we were kissing, I was the greatest human on earth, and just hours later you disappeared, and stopped talking to me. We both were counting the days, and the suspense was rising, the closer we came to this date.

You are a big girl, and I am a stong man. We can do this. Our love is gone strong, and we can spend some time apart.

This was to good of chance to pass it off, not everyone gets invited for a writers’ fellowship to join on a cruise down the white Nile of Egypt.

We wake up in the morning, even before the alarm goes off, our heads on the pillows and you look me i the eyes and I know that you scared: this is a big step, this is the first time we’re apart in a while, but this is a challenge we are willing to take.

I make us some oatmeal peanut butter banana smoothies and a cream cheese bagel with scallions, and you put the last bags in your suitcase.

Everything in order, Marie Kondo would be proud.

The phone buzzes, the car is here, I carry your bags down the stairs.

On the way to the airport you head rests on my shoulder, your arms wrapped around my body. It’s too early to talk, so we listen to each other’s breath as it tells a story of longing, adventure and hope.

Thank good for the wonders of tech, the invention of airplane Wi-Fi for those always on the go.

You are not constantly on your phone, but we both know this will be the last time for a while, that we will be able to contact each other.

You’ll have a short stopover in Vienna, 50 minutes, to short to go and visit the city, but we will do this on our way back or some other time.

The temperature in Cairo will be 37°, that’s quite a jump from 21° we had yesterday here in Berlin.

From there you will board the SS Sudan in Al Maadi and the wildest journey of your life will begin…

I’m excited for you, and I can’t wait to meet up with you fourteen days later in Assuan, and explore the earliest days of my childhood together with you…

Following the footsteps of Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective featured in Agatha Christie’s novel “Death on the Nile”, you and your fellow students will dive in to history and experience intense workshops of writing whilst on a cruise through this iconic landscape.

There will be many things to do, many dishes to taste, and many wonders to see along the way.

I wish I could be there with you, experience this with you, share every moment with you. But this is something that you need to do on your own, to grow out of your comfort zone, to shed your skin you had worn for the past 10 years, and to be reborn, more amazing and beautiful, than ever before.

I feel no envy just pride, I have no fear of missing out, but encouragement for you on this trip. We both know that’s a lie, but that’s a skin I have to shed, so I can learn to let you breathe on your own.

My heart hurts when I think of it, you hurt me by doing it, but it is right and it is okay, because there’s no growth, without some pain.

You called me from the lobby of the Maadi Yachting Club using their free Wi-Fi. The connection was bad, but I could hear the excitement in your voice.

How could it be different? You about to embark on an iconic cruise on the Steam Ship SS Sudan, fourteen days on the Nile, all the way up to Assuan.

This will be great, you can be close to the water, surrounded by books, challenged to spit out a chapter of stage play each day, back and forth with the others, to lift up your writing upon the next level.

I couldn’t be more happy for you, this is what you need, what you deserve.

Sleep well baby girl, talk to you tomorrow…

Oh, girl, I’m excited for you: Today you will visit the forgotten pyramids of Medum, Illahun and Hawara.

Most modern travelers primarily visit sites such as the Pyramids of Giza, or the Step Pyramid of Sakkara. 

But lucky for you, this ain’t no regular trip, and you are not one of most travelers.

Studying the itinerary of your cruise, it feels a bit as if I’m more excited than you. Due to the lack of being there with you i read up on every stop that you make, memorized every trip that you will take and every sight you might see:

Meidum, (Maydum or Maidum / ميدوم‎) is an archaeological site in Lower Egypt. It contains a large pyramid and several mud-brick mastabas.

Hawara? Just south of the site of Crocodilopolis (‘Arsinoe’, also known as ‘Medinet al-Faiyum’) at the entrance to the depression of the Fayyum oasis

Beni Mazar? Minya? Deir el-Muharraq? Ask me anything, i read up on it all!

When I wake up, there’s no a message from you on my screen: Just three little words – “I mish You”, is all that I sent to you you sent to me – but they make my heart jump up to the sky.

Today we went to the Tempelhofer Feld, an old airfield of a closed down Airport within Berlin’s city limits, converted into a park for the public.

With 355 hectares, it’s slightly bigger than New York’as central Park, but nowhere as impressive.

The old runways are used these days by joggers, bikers, skaters and rollerblades.

It was the second time you unpacked the pair of inline skates we bought a couple of weeks ago. With all your protective gear, you looked as if you would go to a roller derby.

Off you skated, and I was left behind. You are gone since 6 days now in a heartbeat.